


Tilting the Axis

by chawanmushii



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Black Paladin Keith (Voltron), Canon-Typical Violence, Feelings Realization, Keith (Voltron) is Bad at Feelings, Keith (Voltron) is a Mess, Keith has anger issues, Lance (Voltron) is a Good Friend, Light Angst, M/M, Minor Violence, Oblivious Keith (Voltron), Oblivious Lance (Voltron), POV Keith (Voltron), Pining Keith (Voltron), Pre-Relationship, Realization, Red Paladin Lance (Voltron), Set during season 3, Shiro (Voltron) is Missing, Team Dynamics, Tumblr Prompt, mentions of season 4
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-03
Updated: 2018-06-03
Packaged: 2019-05-17 13:43:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,106
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14833367
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chawanmushii/pseuds/chawanmushii
Summary: Things are still rough around the edges and the team is still working on their new dynamic when they bump into a fleet of Galra ships. While skirmishes with the Galra were an almost daily occurrence and this should have been nothing more than a routine run, the team’s composition was still new and therefore, there were bound to be gaps in their formation.And this is the reason why they’ve lost all contact with the Red Lion.---Or, in which Keith realizes Lance is the only one who calms him down and wonders what makes Lance so special.Written as an answer to a prompt requesting for a delve into Keith's mind when he figures out Lance has become his impulse control and stability and his thoughts on why it has to be Lance instead of any one of the other paladins. Set during season 3.





	Tilting the Axis

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own any rights to Voltron or its characters. This is a fan-work.

Keith begins noticing the subtle shift in his and Lance’s relationship not long after he takes over command of the Black Lion. Or specifically, after the whole disaster that was Thaycerix. It really only hit him after they returned to the Castleship and the team had dispersed, deciding to postpone their usual de-brief to the next morning as there was a lot to discuss due to the lion switches and all the things that had gone wrong during their first brush-in with Lotor. They needed to have clear minds to face all of that. After changing out of his armor, Keith makes his way to his room, deciding to forego his usual nightly sessions in the training room for some much needed reflection time when he realizes Lance was right behind him.

Keith stops right in front of the door to his room, staring at Lance in apprehension. He fully expected the other boy to go off on him for screwing up their first mission with him as the leader and almost killing the universe’s last hope. Sure, Lance had been supportive back on Thaycerix but there were more urgent things to attend to at the time. Now that they were all back safely in the Altean ship, there was nothing stopping Lance from unleashing hell on Keith. And Keith would deserve every bit of it. So he waits for the bomb to drop.

To his surprise, it doesn’t. Instead of a bomb, Lance offers him a tired smile and pats him kindly on the shoulder. There was a warmth spreading from where Lance’s fingers lingered and Keith relaxes into it, only just realising how tense he was.  

“Get some rest, Keith,” Lance says, giving Keith’s shoulder a comforting squeeze before stepping back and continuing towards his own room, not too far down the hall. After Lance disappears behind his door, Keith catches himself still staring dumbly down the passage.

He lets out a relieved huff, a small smile spreading on his lips before stepping into his room.      

**********

Things are still rough around the edges and the team is still working on their new dynamic when they bump into a fleet of Galra ships. While skirmishes with the Galra were an almost daily occurrence and this should have been nothing more than a routine run, the team’s composition was still new and therefore, there were bound to be gaps in their formation.

And this is the reason why they’ve lost all contact with the Red Lion.

“Pidge! Have you found him?!” Keith yells as no less than ten Galra fighters continue to tail him closely. With an angry snarl, he executes a complicated loop and flips their positions, taking down all ten fighters with one laser beam.

“Negative! For whatever reason, he’s not showing up on any of our trackers!” Pidge grunts as her Lion takes a hit from a fighter. “How’s it looking on the Castleship?”

“Unfortunately, nothing,” Coran reports, voice sounding distressed. “There’s just no sign of the Red Lion. Not even on that Galra battle cruiser. It’s like it’s just vanished!”

“How is that even possible?!” Hunk’s voice comes through next. “There’s nothing out here but Galra and a whole lot of space! Unless— oh my God, do you think he’s been wormholed away? Or worse! Maybe it was a black hole!” The Yellow Paladin was clearly panicking.

“Only an Altean ship would have been able to wormhole,” Allura adds, sounding winded. “And I think we would have noticed a black hole, Hunk.”

“But there’s no other explanat—”

“Quiet!” Keith roars suddenly through their joint communications line, silencing the others. He was agitated as it is and _none_ of them were giving him anything useful. Zeroing-in on the single Galra battle cruiser amongst a battalion of fighters, he makes up his mind. “I’m going in.”

“Keith, you mustn’t!” Allura cautions. “We can’t form Voltron without the Red Lion and—”

“Lance has got to be on that cruiser!” Keith insists, cutting her off. “There’s nowhere else he could be!”

“Our sensors aren’t detecting anything,” Pidge starts. “We can’t be sure—”    

“Do you have any better ideas?! I don’t think I’ve heard anything better yet!”    

“Keith…” Hunk says tentatively, despite his earlier panic. “I know you’re feeling impatient—”

“I’m going. NOW.”

Keith doesn’t wait a second longer. With a flick of his wrists, he pilots his Lion straight into the warzone, Galra fighters immediately zooming in on all sides even as he hears the cries of the other paladins.

His charge forward is stopped abruptly when something even faster collides directly into him and he’s sent flying off-course. Angered, Keith turns his Lion to the cause of the interruption, fully intent on blowing the perpetrator back to the beginnings of time when he stops.

There, facing the Black Lion in all its damaged glory, was the Red Lion. It looked badly battered and had obviously been through a lot during the time the team had lost track of it. The Red Lion’s movements were dull and it still wasn’t showing up on any of the sensors, but it was undoubtedly still moving, filling them all with hope that its pilot was still in there. As if to prove a point, the Red Lion jerks forward and bumps (or rather, bangs) its nose hard against the Black Lion’s. It was all the confirmation they needed.

_Lance was okay._

Keith doesn’t hear the rest of the team scream with relief and is only half-aware of his concurrence when Allura suggests they wormhole out of there.

The mad rage which had him seeing red was quelled, the white noise in his ears silenced to a low thrum.

He can breathe again.

**********

Of all the times, Keith reaches his moment of epiphany whilst in the training room. He’s still fighting against a training bot even as the realization dawns, but he doesn’t stop the simulation. The blood rushing in his veins helps to clear his mind and he _needs_ this to resolve the confusion he’s been feeling as of late.  

The changes in his and Lance’s interactions had become more prominent ever since the events of Thaycerix and Keith can’t help noticing just how different Lance was acting. It was a far cry from what they were like when they first came to space.

Keith wonders what had changed in Lance. Was it because Keith was the leader now? Was Lance doing this out of obligation? The Red Paladin had traditionally always been the Black Paladin’s right-hand-man so maybe Lance was just acting out that role? It was a likely explanation but one that doesn’t satisfy Keith.

He thinks back to the incident when Lance had seemingly disappeared and how Keith himself had reacted in that situation, still fully ashamed by his actions. He had already apologized to the rest of the team for what he had said and done, but still, he knew that he’d acted completely out of line. Especially for someone who’s supposed to be the _calm_ leader of Voltron. If Lance hadn’t showed up when he did, who knows what Keith would have gotten himself, and possibly the entire team, into.

Keith lashes out at the bot in frustration and wonders why he’s so bad at controlling his emotions, why he lets it be the master of him. He’s already let his impulses get the better of him multiple times now and every time, it doesn’t end well. And yet, he lets it happen again and _again_. Back during Thaycerix, when Lance disappeared, and all the other missions which only served to highlight Keith’s shortcomings. Each time, if Lance hadn’t stopped him…

Lance. It’s always _Lance_.    

He wonders why it’s _Lance_ that manages to pull the brakes on Keith’s temper, even when no one else can. There was something in the other boy’s actions and demeanour that effectively gets _through_ to Keith. Even in the early days of their so-called rivalry, Lance had always managed to rile him up easily. Now, it seems clear that Lance held the ability to wind him down too.  

Just then, Keith lands a fatal blow on the training bot, slicing it clean into half. There was a flash of light before the bot disappears and the simulation ends.

A sudden clapping echoes throughout the chamber of the training room, causing Keith to jump out of his skin.  

“Nice work there, samurai,” Lance calls from where he’s leaning against the wall.

“Lance,” Keith breathes deeply, his sword bayard transforming back into its basic form. “What are you doing?”

“Uh, watching you train?”

“I can see that. Why?”

“No reason,” Lance shrugs.

When Keith gives him a funny look, Lance sighs. With hands shoved into his jeans pockets, he moves to stand next to Keith in the middle of the training room.

“Okay, fine, you got me there.”

Keith raises an eyebrow, waiting for Lance to speak, his muscles tensing. If Keith were to make a guess for the reason Lance was here now, something which was unusual, he could really only think of one. When Lance shuffles his feet uneasily and doesn’t say anything, Keith decides to make the jump.

“Is this about how I’ve been acting?” Keith asks, a slight frown on his face, posture guarded.

“How you’ve been— wha?” Lance looks at him with round, confused eyes.

Keith shrugs. “I know I haven’t been leading the team very well and there’s still a lot of things I need to fix—”

“Keith, my man,” Lance stops him there. “You’re doing _fine_. All of us are still adjusting to the new changes. We just need to work together to iron out all the little bumps.”

“But I—”

“No buts!” Lance interrupts. “Nuh-uh, I’m not hearing it.” Lance crosses his arms in a mock-annoyed stance, eyebrows raised as if to dare Keith to say anything further. Keith doesn’t. Lance smiles. “Now that’s more like it!”    

And just like that, Keith feels his anxiety melt away.

_There it is again._

Moments like this were increasing in frequency, and Keith had no idea what to make of it. It’s as if Lance’s very presence soothes him, like no one else could. What made Lance so special? Keith had always thought of Lance as someone attractive and funny, when he’s not making an ass of himself flirting with every other female, that is, but this strange effect Lance had over him was something completely new. Was it because of how Lance had changed?

“Anyway, that’s not what I’m here for,” Lance was speaking again, the uncertain look having returned. “I guess I was just… wondering how you were coping.”

Coping? _Oh_.

Of course.

Shiro.  

No one liked bringing up the topic of Shiro with Keith because of Keith’s explosive reaction each time. But this was _Lance_. And with Lance, things worked differently.

“I’m fine…” Keith says finally. “It’s… I just need time.”

Lance nods understandingly. “Alright, that’s good, I guess. Just… just remember we’re all with you too.”

“I know.”

“Great, great,” Lance laughs nervously. “I guess I didn’t need to do this, huh?”

Keith frowns. “It’s fine… I don’t mind.”

“Yeah well…”

“I mean it, Lance,” Keith insists, urging Lance to believe him. He _did_ appreciate the effort Lance made and he _wanted_ Lance to know that. “I— thank you, for caring.”

The bright smile that lights Lance’s face in that moment slams the realization into Keith like a two-tonne truck. If he had known Lance could smile like that with just a simple ‘thank you’, he would have said it long ago.

“No problem, man,” Lance claps a hand on Keith’s shoulder, exactly the way he did all those days ago in front of their rooms after the Thaycerix mission and something flares within Keith. The pieces were falling together into place.

Maybe it wasn’t Lance who had changed. Maybe it was _Keith_.

This explained why Lance was different. It wasn’t about obligation, it wasn’t about the team, it wasn’t even about the whole ‘saving the world’ stint. It was simply because Lance _was_ special to Keith. In a way that was a lot more personal than Keith had initially realized.

Somewhere, somehow, Keith had unconsciously crossed that one delicate line and the awareness was only catching up to him now.

Lance was still smiling brightly as he left the training room, reminding Keith to come to dinner later but Keith hardly registers it. This was all very sudden, and he’s not sure how he wants to deal with it. How he _should_ deal with it.

**********

The very next day, they find Shiro.

**********

A few weeks after that, Keith leaves Team Voltron.

**Author's Note:**

> Written as an answer to a prompt on Tumblr.


End file.
